Thursday was the occasion of Riley’s big field trip to visit our state capital in Trenton. She had been looking forward to the trip excitedly, as she loves social studies and history. She also loves exaggeration and drama, so we had to filter her stories from the trip to sort truth from fiction.

She told us how she had stood in the capitol rotunda. I asked if she happened to run into our state’s somewhat well-known governor, Chris Christie.

“Well, I did here some voices that sounded like Chris Christie while I was in there,” she said, “so maybe it was him!”

She was fishing to see if Ryan would believe her. It’s not hard to do. Even if all logic tells him something is made up, he still has to ask for reassurance. Occasionally Riley likes to take advantage of this.

Before he could respond, we jumped in to nip this in the bud.

“You do not even know what he sounds like,” I told her.

But it was too late, she already had Ryan’s attention.

“Was he saying, ‘You know how I know you’re not from New Jersey? Because you’re too quiet! Get up and make some noise!’?” Ryan asked.

We didn’t have to jog the memory bank too far to know where this script came from.

The New Jersey Devils play that plea on the video board at every game. A larger-than-life figure with plenty of swagger implores the crowd to show some New Jersey pride by getting loud.

Married father of two, rapidly approaching middle age. Hockey has been a constant in my life since the age of four. I care way too much about most sports -- something that will become evident in these pages -- but I'm learning that some things are more important. My son has been diagnosed with PDD-NOS, ADHD and Asperger's at various points.